Author: Garry Lloyd

In October, I managed to play 58 games of 18 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Twilight Inscription – 1 play –  8 
First Published 2022

This is a complex (in terms of decision space) roll and write but the gameplay is very straightforward. You have four boards that you are looking to develop (Navigation, Expansion, Industry and Warfare) but you can only work on one board each turn and you don’t have enough time to develop everything so you have to decide on where to concentrate your efforts. This decision may be influenced by the Faction you are playing, as each of the 24 different factions gives certain benefit that point you in a particular direction. Also, there are nine different versions of each board that can be mixed and matched and each board has certain objectives to aim for in the hope of grabbing lots of victory points. However, HAL is also working on these objectives to deprive you of the most valuable benefits. It works really well. I really enjoyed this and am certain the variety that is offered by the different factions, boards and objectives means there is plenty to explore.

Drop It – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2018

Drop It is a simple dexterity game that is reminiscent of Connect Four but here you have different shapes and you are trying to drop them into the grid to land in spots that will score you points while avoiding pieces of the same colour. Easy to explain and play but some people (i.e. me) are not very good at judging how the different shapes will bounce around the grid. Good fun.

Roller Rumble – 1 play –  6 
First Published 1999

This is one of PLAAY games’s earliest games that has just been re-issued in a new version. It uses the key features of many of their games, such as qualities and narrative, to simulate a roller derby where two teams skate around a track trying to get their point-scoring players through the pack to enable them to rush ahead and score points for opposing players they manage to lap within 60 seconds of them breaking free. Unfortunately, this didn’t click with me at all. Their basketball game (Highlight Maker Hoops) does the same sort of thing but much better. This one seemed clunky in comparison and too fiddly for what it was. Shame.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

24x Fast Drive Football
8x Motor Sport
7x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
4x Formula D
2x Marvel United
1x Red White & Blue Racin’: Stock Car Action Game
1x Igloo Pop
1x Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
1x Harry Potter Strike Dice Game
1x Fury Football
1x Zombie Dice
1x Obsession
1x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
1x Friday
1x Next Station: London

My NASCAR and baseball seasons came to an end this month and Fast Drive Football hits the midway point of the regular season. I also managed to get Obsession back to the table after a long absence and we’ve started the latest expansion to Hogwart’s Battle, which adds a new and interesting element.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

851 games of 115 titles.
42 new to me.
1 x 94 plays; 1 x 75 plays; 1 x 63 plays; 1 x 62 plays; 1 x 61 plays; 1 x 39 plays; 1 x 37 plays; 1 x 34 plays; 2 x 32 plays; 1 x 26 plays; 1 x 20 plays; 2 x 19 plays; 1 x 15 plays; 1 x 14 plays; 1 x 13 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 2 x 10 plays; 2 x 8 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 2 x 4 plays; 10 x 3 plays; 19 x 2 plays; 60 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 3 new titles to the collection: Roller Rumble, Twilight Inscription and Marvel: Remix so my total collection now stands at 765.

At the end of October, I have one unplayed game (one at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was an easy choice, Twilight Inscription.

In July, I managed to play 111 games of 22 different titles with 7 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Three Dice Horse Racing – 4 plays –  7 
First Published 2013

This is a dice and charts sports replay game of horse flat racing. Races take place over 4 to 7 rounds depending on the length of the race and, for each horse, the three dice generate a movement factor to which modifiers are applied to take account of the horse’s qualities and whether it favours the early, middle or closing stages. It works pretty well and a race takes between 10 and 20 minutes.

Trails of Tucana – 2 plays –  7 
First Published 2019

This is a flip and write game and works very well solo (and I’m sure equally as well with more than one). You have a map made up of different terrain hexes (desert, forest, mountains or water) with ten villages (marked A-E twice over) and five pairs of different features (named ‘sights’ in the game) dotted around the map. You also have a deck of 27 terrain cards. You turn over a pair of cards and draw a line between adjacent hexes that feature those types of terrain. Once the deck runs out (13 turns with one card left over) shuffle the deck and repeat to end the game. You score points after the first round for sights you managed to connect to any village and again at the end of the game plus any connected villages of matching letters. In the multi-player game, you also get a bonus for connecting matching villages before other players (or, in solo, a smaller bonus for all matching villages connected in round 1 and any other connected matches at the end of the game providing the bonus cards weren’t randomly removed after round 1). It’s a neat and simple game of trying to get your best score without knowing how the terrain cards are going to be paired up.

Lord of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Game – 6 plays –  7 
First Published 2011

This solo print and play game has you trying to get to Mount Doom by progressing through the card deck in up to 25 turns and, once the card deck is exhausted, tossing the ring into the fiery depths to win. The 54 cards each show characters or locations you encounter on your journey as well as three things pertinent to game play: how many cards you draw next turn, how much damage the card does to you and an action that is only activated if it is the last card drawn. Get through the deck without losing all your health or encountering the witch king too often and you win. Games take 5-15 minutes and it has that addictive quality to try again when you fail.

Explorers – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2021

This is another flip and write game, nicely produced by Ravensburger. The game is played over four rounds and, in each round, you will reveal 7 landscape tiles (from 8) one at a time and utilise one of the two terrain types shown to fill in 2 or 3 matching terrain spaces on your board. After 7 tiles have been flipped, the round ends and you score for things you have filled in. After four rounds, you tot up your points and see how you performed against a ranking scale (solo) or the other players (multi-player).

Boundary T20 Cricket – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2016

This is a print and play cricket replay game using real world statistics. It uses three dice and cards for the batsmen with a chart for everything else, principally bowler economy, how wickets fell, which fielder made any catches etc. Batsmen are graded from 11 to 55 and the card for their grade is used to determine how many runs they score or whether there’s a wicket possibility for each delivery (roll of the dice). It’s a pretty straightforward design and takes under an hour per innings even if you record full batsmen/bowler details throughout.

Motor Sport – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2012

This is another sports replay game from Lambourne which I’d describe as a cut-down version of World of Motor Racing with various modules covering F1, F3000, Indy Car, MotoGP etc. You can re-create any race where you have access to qualifying and finishing positions and these generate a basic racing grade and starting Cumulative Movement Factor. A race is comprised of a start turn, representing the opening break into the first corner, six regular turns and, in the case of MotoGP, a last lap turn. Each regular turn involves every driver rolling a die and, on a roll of 1-4, will move normally; a roll of five will generate a negative effect; and a 6 will generate a positive effect. Additionally for MotoGP, a roll of 1 will eliminate a real-life non-finisher – otherwise you just follow the normal result. It works pretty well and is very much suited to season play as races are completed much quicker than in World of Motor Racing.

Owzat T20 Cricket – 2 plays –  6 
First Published 2014

This is another dice and charts sports replay game with batsmen and bowlers rated from A-D to vary how the players perform. It uses a clever grid system with the batsmen moving around the grid, up and down the various columns based on a die roll but the better batsmen start in the better area of the grid so are less likely to get out whereas lower rated batsmen have to navigate through the grid to reach that better area and are more likely to get out before they get there. I like the way this works and there are different grids for different types of wicket (slow, normal, good). The key thing is the likelihood of getting out and I’m not sure whether the numbers properly represent the likely scoring statistics – two matches have not seen any team last 20 overs and the scores seem a little on the low side. Rating may improve if the numbers work out better after more plays.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

40x The Beautiful Game
14x Grand Slam Tennis
9x History Maker Golf
9x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
4x Metric Mile
4x Formula D
3x Red White & Blue Racin’: Stock Car Action Game
2x Finito!
1x Onirim
1x Top of the Stretch
1x World of Motor Racing
1x Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
1x Encore!
1x TurfMaster
1x The Great Escape

Besides my solo sports replays, I managed to play two games that have not seen table time for a while. I played TurfMaster with Jan and Becky to remind myself how it plays and just to play with the lovely horse pieces. And we also dug out Sherlock Holmes and stumbled around London trying to work out why some lions had been killed in Hyde Park. Good fun.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

631 games of 86 titles.
34 new to me.
1 x 84 plays; 1 x 75 plays; 1 x 63 plays; 1 x 61 plays; 1 x 39 plays; 1 x 32 plays; 1 x 26 plays; 1 x 25 plays; 2 x 19 plays; 1 x 14 plays; 1 x 13 plays; 2 x 10 plays; 1 x 9 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 3 x 5 plays; 3 x 4 plays; 8 x 3 plays; 14 x 2 plays; 41 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 5 new titles to the collection: Motor Sport, LOrd of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Game, Explorers, Boundary T20 Cricket and Owzat T20 Cricket so my total collection now stands at 756.

At the end of July, I have no unplayed games (one at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Lord of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Game.

In February, I managed to play 77 games of 12 different titles with 2 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Shoot-Out Hockey – 9 plays –  7 
First Published 2005

Solo sports replay game using stats for real NHL teams with a choice of playing the game using dice and charts or fast action cards. The cards work well and a match can be completed in 15-20 minutes with the game producing details of goal timings, scorers and assists, penalties, goalie stats etc. Pretty good but not my favourite of these sports replay systems.

Paleo – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

Last year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres is a co-op game set in the stone age where your tribe is trying to survive long enough to complete a cave painting with a novel card management mechanism and a mix and match module system to create different scenarios. Only played once so far, solo as two players, but I liked the way the game played although piecing together how to play was a bit tricky first time around. Need to play again soon.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

16x Fastcard Soccer
13x Let’s PLAAY Jai-Alai
12x Fury Hardball
10x Red White & Blue Racin’: Stock Car Action Game
10x History Maker Golf
2x Fast Drive Football
1x Paydirt
1x Onirim
1x Pizza Box Football
1x Rummikub

== YEAR SO FAR ==

136 games of 18 titles.
5 new to me.
1 x 32 plays; 1 x 19 plays; 3 x 13 plays; 2 x 12 plays; 1 x 9 plays; 3 x 2 plays; 7 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 1 new title to the collection which was Shoot-Out Hockey so my total collection now stands at 743.

At the end of February, I have seven unplayed games (eight at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Paleo.

In August, I managed to play 72 games of 29 different titles with 10 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Metric Mile – 1 play –  8 
First Published 1986

Very clever solo or multi-player game about middle distance running where you can see whether runners from years gone past would match their modern counterparts. A game lasts ten rounds with each of the four laps becoming more focussed so the first lap lasts one turn while the final lap lasts four. I mapped some of the cards to this year’s olympic finalists and it worked very well.

So Clover! – 2 plays –  8 
First Published 2021

Very accessible party game in the Codenames / Just One family where you try to give clues to allow the other players to correctly place word cards in the correct sequence. Really enjoyed this, even with just two players.

Ryder Cup Replay – 2 plays –  8 
First Published 0

Golf game based on the Ryder Cup competition where you get to replay a specific tournament to see if you can change history. Each player has a card grid of results for the type of club used and the results are cross=referenced with an outcome on the course being played. This was excellent and I’ve spent quite a bit of time adapting it to the 2021 Solheim Cup course and players in readiness for this weekend’s tournament.

Space Lunch – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

This is a nice set-collection game where you are trying to draw the right cards from a limited choice while looking ahead to limit your opponent’s possibilities and set yourself up for your subsequent turn. Only played solo but the AI worked well and I quite enjoyed this.

Fast Drive Football – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2021

This is a downloadable solo print and play that simulates an American Football game using dice and charts to resolve each possession rather than play. Hence, a game can be played pretty quickly once you are used to the system. It works really well and the designer is releasing card sets for lots of historical seasons. I’m probably going to use this to play a tournament during this year’s NFL season.

Harry Potter Strike Dice Game – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2020

Simple push your luck dexterity game of throwing dice into a tray and hoping to match a symbol already showing in the tray. If you don’t get a match, you can toss in another die but once you’re out of dice, you’re out of the game. The Harry Potter version adds special actions for each symbol that mix things up and is a decent variant on the original Strike Dice Game.

Golems – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

A card drafting game where you are trying to collect the best combination of golem cards while utilising gems and runes to improve your position. It worked ok but I wasn’t blown away by it.

The Tea Dragon Society Card Game – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2018

This is a deck-building and management game where you choose to draw a card and trigger its effects or buy a card to improve your deck. Certain cards bought progress the game through the four seasons at the end of which whoever has collected the most points wins. It worked smoothly but didn’t wow me as anything different from lots of other deck builders.

Clue: Harry Potter Edition – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2008

Not a lot to say about this other than it’s Cluedo ported to a Harry Potter setting. There are dials on the board that open and close doors to some of the locations and there are cards that can help or hinder your investigations. These are interesting additions and it works pretty well although it’s still basically the Cluedo framework of deducing who did it, with what and where.

Mint Control – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

A pared-down area control game that worked ok but wasn;t anything that I felt I’d be rushing back to.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

10x Flamme Rouge
9x Pocket Sports Boxing
8x Pocket Cricket
8x Reiner Knizia’s Decathlon
6x Pocket Golf
2x Urbion
2x Onirim
2x Formula D
1x Can’t Stop
1x Qwixx
1x L.L.A.M.A.
1x Encore!
1x Love Letter
1x Qwinto
1x Limes
1x Take it Easy!
1x Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
1x Space Worm
1x Win, Place & Show

My Tour de France game has just about run its course and has been excellent fun. My cricket league has passed the halfway point and is working well (unless you’re a Lancashire Lightning fan) while the olympics gave me an excuse to give Pocket Sports Boxing and Reiner Knizia’s Decathlon a few plays. It was also nice to play Take it Easy, Qwinto, Love Letter and Limes again after a bit of a break. Onirim, LAMA and Can’t Stop remain in regular play.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

571 games of 135 titles.
41 new to me.
1 x 90 plays; 1 x 40 plays; 1 x 37 plays; 1 x 35 plays; 1 x 27 plays; 1 x 23 plays; 1 x 18 plays; 1 x 16 plays; 1 x 15 plays; 1 x 14 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 1 x 11 plays; 1 x 10 plays; 1 x 8 plays; 2 x 7 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 2 x 5 plays, 7 x 4 plays; 14 x 3 plays; 15 x 2 plays; 79 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 5 new titles to the collection which were Blitzkrieg: World War Two in 20 Minutes, Ryder Cup Replay, Harry Potter Strike, So Clover and Mr Cabbagehead’s Garden.. My total collection now stands at 715.

At the end of August, I have seven unplayed games (ten at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Ryder Cup Replay.

In July, I managed to play 84 games of 18 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Shut the Box – 6 plays –  7 
First Published 1750

It might seem surprising but I’ve never played this dice game before. Very quick to play and some light decisions on which numbers to flip but you’re pretty much at the mercy of the dice rolls. This was a birthday gift and it was good fun.

Data Boxing II – 1 play –  7 
First Published 1976

This is a solo boxing game simulation using cards for real-life fighters allowing you to pit boxers from different eras against each other. Not easy to get into but, once you understand the many small rules variables, it works quite quickly and I enjoyed my only play quite a bit. Rating may go up as I get more used to the system.

Pro Golf – 4 plays
First Published 1981

This isn’t the commercial game but a promo game based on the original title which allows you to play a 36 man 4 round tournament in a couple of hours. I had fun rolling dice and seeing what the result of the Open Championship should actually have been. (Not rated as it wasn’t the full game).

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

14x Pocket Tennis
13x Pocket Sports Surfing Tour
9x Flamme Rouge
8x Pocket Cricket
7x Fastcard Soccer
6x Pocket Golf
3x Pocket Basketball
3x Completto
2x Rummikub
2x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
2x Formula D
1x Verflixxt!
1x Win, Place & Show
1x Powerboats
1x Dominion

Continuing my solo sports gaming splurge, this month saw me finish my Euro 2020 football tournament, the NBA playoffs and my baseball league. Also played some tennis during Wimbledon, continued the Tour de France, T20 cricket and Formula 1 season – as well as testing some ideas for horse racing, power boat racing and boxing. Otherwise, Jan and I got a few two-player games of Dominion, Verflixxt and Completto none of which we’ve played for a while and were as good as ever.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

499 games of 120 titles.
31 new to me.
1 x 90 plays; 1 x 37 plays; 1 x 35 plays; 1 x 34 plays; 1 x 18 plays; 1 x 17 plays; 1 x 16 plays; 2 x 15 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 1 x 11 plays; 1 x 10 plays; 1 x 7 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 2 x 5 plays, 6 x 4 plays; 14 x 3 plays; 11 x 2 plays; 72 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 10 new titles to the collection which were Eiyo, 15 Days, Golems, Space Lunch, Rebis, Mint Works, Mint Control, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (thanks, Nick), Metric Mile and Shut the Box. My total collection now stands at 710.

At the end of July, I have ten unplayed games (two at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Data Boxing II.

In June, I managed to play 110 games of 21 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Rally Roll – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2016

This is a nice push-your-luck dice game in the Can’t Stop mould. roll the 5 small and 1 large dice and score for each small die that matches the colour of the large die. Reroll to try and add to your score but, if you get no match, you bust and it’s the next player’s turn. You also score a bonus for all five small dice matching the large die and first ot 50 points triggers the final round. Good fun and Jan has quite enjoyed it and even suggested we play it.

Pocket Sports T20 Cricket – 7 plays –  7 
First Published 2010

Another in the Pocket Sports dice game series and this plays like a slightly more involved Owzthat. It’s not perfect with too many No Balls and Clean Bowled results cropping up but I’ve used some rule tweaks and it now works quite well. So much so that I’m really enjoying playing a T20 league at the moment.

Agents of SMERSH – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2012

This is a really neat story-telling game (along the lines of Tales of the Arabian Nights) set in a James Bond-like secret agent universe. Only played one 3-player game so far but we really enjoyed it and it should work solo as well, which is a bonus.

Race The Rails – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

This is a party game designed by Tony Boydell where each player starts at a London Underground station and has to track their way from station to station until they reach home by spotting the next link in their journey in the large array of cards and noting where they need to go next. There’s a few silly additions (like having to run round the table before you can continue) to make it not completely about being the quickest eye in scanning your route but it is a game that rewards visual dexterity so won’t be for everyone. Good for the right crowd though.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

45x Fastcard Soccer
11x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
8x Pocket Basketball
7x Pocket Golf
7x Pocket Tennis
3x Würfelwurst
3x Rummikub
3x Formula D
2x Onirim
2x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
1x Memoir ’44
1x Hamsterrolle
1x KLASK
1x Ligretto Dice
1x Hoppladi Hopplada!
1x Mini Mölkky
1x Flamme Rouge

I’ve really been playing the heck out of my sports-themed games this month and have started a new blog to track my plays. As the Euro 2020 Championship is on at the moment, I’ve played a lot of Fastcard Soccer attempting to recreate the tournament (My games have been partly successful in that 6/8 of the actual quarter-finalists are also still in my tournament.

With the weather being so good in the UK, Mollky has obviously got a play and I’ve also managed to get a couple of other dexterity games to the table (Hamsterrolle and Klask). It was also good to get in a play of Memoir ’44 on D-Day (6th June).

== YEAR SO FAR ==

414 games of 112 titles.
28 new to me.
1 x 83 plays; 1 x 33 plays; 1 x 27 plays, 1 x 23 plays, 1 x 18 plays; 1 x 13 plays, 1 x 12 plays, 1 x 9 plays, 2 x 8 plays, 2 x 7 plays; 1 x 6 plays; 2 x 5 plays, 5 x 4 plays; 13 x 3 plays; 12 x 2 plays; 67 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 4 new titles to the collection which were Pocket Sports T20 Cricket, Win Place & Show, Rally Roll and Race the Rails. I also reacquired 1 game and parted company with 1 game so my total collection now stands at 700.

At the end of June, I have two unplayed games (3 at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Pocket Sports T20 Cricket.